Post Retirement
by whirlgirl
Summary: Barely two weeks after Alex had started living with the Pleasures, Edward Pleasure is asked to interview a war hero at the Marine Barracks in Washington D.C. Unfortunately, because Alex is still as reckless and free-thinking as usual, he ends up in trouble -again! The trouble only seems to escalate when NCIS try to get involved. Why can't his life be easy? Post Scorpia Rising.
1. Retirement?

It had been a couple of weeks since Alex had moved to San Francisco and, to be honest, he was finding the transition hard. A new school, a different lifestyle and a completely different country culminated in a rather large adjustment on his part. Thankfully, Spring Break had come and Alex had welcomed it with open arms.

The only downside was that Edward Pleasure had been called up to WashingtonD.C. to interview some war hero at the Marine barracks that Alex hadn't heard of. Liz and Sabina had jumped at the opportunity to tag along. After gushing for around an hour, they finally realised that they should ask Alex for his opinion.

That's how Alex found himself sitting next to Sabina in the back of the Pleasure's Range Rover, listening to his iPod. He had saved himself from their puppy dog looks by uttering the very teenaged phrase, 'whatever' as soon as the attention was drawn on him.

"We're here," Liz announced from the front seat. "This is the hotel we'll be staying in. Get ready to grab your bags."

Alex pulled out his ear buds and shoved his iPod in his pocket. He scanned his surroundings for anything suspicious as they pulled to a stop in front of the card reader at the entrance to the underground parking lot. In fact, he'd been secretly doing periodic checks for suspicious activity the whole time they'd been driving.

If the Pleasures had noticed his paranoia, they hadn't said anything. Then again, he was very good at hiding his emotions so it was even more likely that they honestly hadn't realised what he had been up to.

"Here we are," Edward pulled to a stop and flipped the handle for the trunk.

Immediately, they all exited the vehicle and slammed the doors behind them. Alex pulled out all the heavier bags and balanced them on their side so they could be pulled along. He grabbed his much lighter bags and threw them over his shoulder before stepping aside to let the others get their stuff.

"Alex, can you help me with some of my bags?" Liz asked him as she grabbed her large purse and backpack. The teenaged boy resisted the urge to roll his eyes and grabbed the woman's large duffel bag. With his free hand he grabbed the handle of her large purple suitcase so he could wheel it along behind him.

In the corner of his eye, he spotted Sabina struggling with her luggage as well. With Edward's injured leg, the man was barely managing his sole duffel bag.

"I'll come back for the rest of our luggage," Alex suggested. "Let's just go and check in for now. It's getting late."

The suggestion was welcomed with some visible relief on the Pleasure's part. Edward locked the car and hobbled along after his wife and daughter to the elevator that led up to the lobby. Alex followed them in just as Edward had swiped the card and pressed the button for the lobby.

When they arrived in the lobby, they weren't expecting the utter chaos that was before them. A Bride and Groom were smooching in one corner while a lot of men and women were spread out across the lobby drinking Champagne and talking loudly. Since a lot of them were dressed identically, Alex determined that the room was most likely filled with the couple's Bridal Party and their entourage.

"Do you need any help with your luggage?" a Bellboy asked them.

Alex gratefully handed the bags he carried to the young man, who put them on a large golden trolley. He informed the Pleasures that he was going to get the rest of their luggage and swiftly pick-pocketed the Edward's access card from his pocket. When he waved it in the air afterwards, he smirked as Sabina's father patted himself down in disbelief.

The trip down to fetch the remaining luggage was uneventful to say the least. It took him less than a few minutes to catch up with the Pleasures outside their hotel room.

Sabina whistled as he approached, "That was bloody fast!"

"What can I say?" Alex smiled. "I'm talented."

"Well, Mr. Talented, I could really do with my access card," Edward held out a hand. When the card was placed in his hand, the man narrowed his eyes, "Where'd you learn that particular skill?"

"Would you believe the internet?"

The man sighed and shook his head. Luckily for Alex, Edward hadn't bothered to pursue the issue any further. Anything relating to M16 and his spy skills bothered the boy. Somehow Ian Rider had become lumped in that category too. After all, everything he'd been through could have been easily avoided if it weren't for his Uncle.

"Well, Edward and I will be going to bed now," Liz addressed the teenagers. "Don't stay up too late."

"Actually, I'm also completely wiped out," Sabina said. As her parents retreated to the master bedroom, she yawned before scratching through the luggage, "I was going to set the alarm on my phone. Where _is_ my purse?"

Alex's eyes widened slightly when he remembered the small, black bag in the hands of the bellhop from earlier. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Sabina. "Use mine. I've got a feeling you left yours in the lobby," he lied. "I'll go check."

He rushed out the door and had just rushed down the hall after the bellhop when he realised that he had forgotten to grab one of the spare access keys he had spotted sitting in a wooden bowl in their suite. Shrugging off the thought, he slid into the elevator just as it was about to close behind their bellhop from earlier.

"Why are you in such a rush, kid?" the young man asked as Alex nearly knocked him over.

Alex huffed, stood back and held out a hand, "Sabina's purse. You took it. I want I back."

The man flinched but quickly maintained his composure, "You must be mistaken, kid. I was only wheeling in your family's larger luggage. Maybe you should look properly before accusing me of theft. You—"

Alex rolled his eyes and casually leaned back against the railing inside the elevator. A smile slowly spread across his face.

"Why are you smiling?" the bellhop found the boy's sudden change in demeanour disconcerting.

The teenaged boy pulled out a phone from his pocket and scrolled through its contacts. "I was just wondering how Jenny, Amber and Tina would react to finding out that you have been frequently visiting a shady brothel on the other side of town."

"T-that's my phone!"

"You don't say!" Alex said sarcastically. The doors dinged open he looked down at his watch, "You've got twenty minutes to hand Sabina's purse to reception. If not, this little thing is going to be dropped in the nearest river – which if I'm right, is the Anacostia river."

Before the man could make a grab at him, the fifteen-year-old weaved through the crowded lobby and towards the front doors. As he passed the front desk, Alex nicked a business card and rushed outside.

After memorising the hotel's number, Alex ducked into the shadows and stuffed his hands into his pockets. The air was a little chilly but he could survive. He'd managed to get through much worse. In fact, he was looking forward to some time alone for once.

You know, he hadn't really thought about it, but since Jack… Since Cairo, he corrected, he'd been constantly distracted by something or another. Talking about distracted, Alex had absolutely no clue where he was anymore. While he was always vigilant in watching for tails and enemy snipers, the boy had forgotten to note the streets that he had taken.

"Oh, great," he groaned.

A light suddenly flicked on in a small warehouse to his right. Because the temperature was dropping rapidly, Alex thought it wise to stop ask for directions. He knocked on the door loudly and jumped up and down on the doorstep in an attempt to keep himself warm.

Alex cleared his throat as he knocked once again, "I know you're in there. All I want is directions. Then, I'll be on my way."

Due to the force of his knocking, the door gave way and swung open to reveal a sparse room. Not a person in sight. Since Alex was a curious person by nature he stepped into the warehouse and began to look around.

"Hello, anyone there?" he called out.

That was when something unexpected happened. As he stepped forward, the ground beneath him gave away and he found himself falling about six feet, give or take. He winced as landed quite hard on his side. With a sinking feeling, he pulled out the bellboy's now-crushed phone.

Alex pushed himself up off the ground and turned on the light on his watch. Thanks to a little tweaking from Smithers, the intensity of the light could be adjusted. As an apology for lying to Alex, the M16 Agent had sent him a tricked out watch, iPod and a large set of explosive earrings.

Apparently, the latter was purely to keep the hole in his ear from Point Blanc from closing up. Up till then, Alex had kept a simple black stud in his ear since he had no clue what to do with it. If it weren't for the awesome design he wouldn't have touched the things let alone worn them.

Alex sighed and shined the torch at his surroundings. He seemed to be in a tunnel of sorts. Since there was no possible way to climb back up to where he fell, the boy resigned himself to a little bit of exploration.


	2. Luck of the Devil

The tunnel was a lot longer than he thought it would be. About a hundred paces later, there was still no end in sight. Drops of water were occasionally landing on his head so he could safely assume that he was near a body of water. Perhaps, he had travelled closer to the Anacostia river. If that were the case, and there was an exit nearby, there was a high likelihood that he would be able to find his way back.

Prior to their trip, he had mapped out a few routes from distinct landmarks to the hotel just in case he got lost. This actually happened quite regularly – especially when he thought he was being tailed. Emphasis on the 'thought'. Sometimes he let his paranoia get the better of him.

Like now, for instance, every instinct in his body was telling him to slink into the shadows and just disappear. He tried to resist the urge to do so but it was too strong. Alex dimmed the light on his watch to its lowest setting and slowly stuck to the left of the tunnel.

In this case, Alex's instincts were spot on. Heated voices were coming from somewhere ahead of him. The teenaged boy pressed himself as hard as he could against the wall and shifted a little so that he was hidden behind one of the beams that supported the ceiling.

"Why the hell didn't you use a silencer?" A man growled loudly. "The cops are going to be crawling over that place in less than five minutes!"

"Let them crawl over the place for all I care. They won't find anything," a raspy tenor answered.

Alex squinted as a really bright light lit up the tunnel next to him. He held his breath as they passed by his hiding spot. Thankfully, they were so immersed in their conversation that they easily overlooked him. However, thanks to the fact that they were carrying a high-powered lamp instead of a torch, he had gotten a pretty good them.

"You don't know that!" The first guy who had spoken, Mr. Muscle, exclaimed. He pushed along a small nerdy-looking man, "Are you really going to take this joker's word for it?"

"No one has ever discovered these tunnels," Nerdy nerd defended himself in a high-pitched voice. "My Great-Uncle was very thorough when he designed the entrances and exits. He researched camouflage techniques extensively."

Since the men were starting to move out of Alex's hearing range, the boy silently tip-toed after them. He made sure to memorise the ground they covered so he wouldn't trip in the relative darkness and alert them to the fact that he was following them.

"Would you stake your life on it?" Raspy Tenor cut in.

"Yea—"

Bang! The nerdy man stumbled backwards and slid down the tunnel wall. Alex bit back a gasp and grimaced before slinking back into the shadows. Just his luck to stumble upon something like this, he thought to himself.

Raspy Tenor squatted next to the man and patted him on the shoulder. "It was nice doing business with you. Have fun bleeding to death in this tunnel. After all, no-one is going to find you down here."

Mr. Muscle didn't seem to have any more comments after that. He just followed Raspy Tenor down the tunnel like a lost puppy. Alex felt no need to do the same. He'd gotten a good look at them already.

First, he'd better check up on Nerdy Nerd to see if he was alright. He'd never let himself live it down if he left a man to die when he could have helped him. The line did blur a little bit with bad guys but, in this case, he thought he would chance it.

"You shouldn't bet your life so easily," Alex whispered to the man. He turned up the light on his watch and placed two fingers on the man's neck. The man's pulse was racing along at a freakish speed.

"Who…? Who're you?"

"Some guy who accidentally discovered this place," he replied. The teen chuckled, "I seem to have a knack for discovering things I really shouldn't. Are you alright?"

The Skinny man in front of him let out a shaky breath and shook his head. He gasped when Alex hefted him up onto his shoulders using the fireman's lift he remembered being taught in year eight. (1) There were some really awkward girl/boy interactions for relays that term.

When he had relayed this to Ian, the man had lectured him on the importance of remembering the skill. He said it would come in handy one day – obviously, it had. In hind-sight, the spy training was so obvious.

"Look, I'll get you out of here," Alex tried to placate the weeping man on his shoulders as he walked further into the tunnel. "As soon as I find an exit," he added under his breath.

"Left," the man grunted out.

Alex stopped and turned to his left. The watch illuminated the same dirt wall that he'd followed the whole time. He frowned, "There isn't anything to the left."

All he heard in response to this was loud huffing and puffing. When Alex began to move on, he heard Nerdy Nerd gasp out a strangled 'Wait'. Against his better judgement, the boy decided to oblige the man and stop.

"Put me… down… for a second," the man struggled to push himself off Alex's back. Since the man was so adamant, Alex thought it best to do as he said lest the man would aggravate his wound further.

Alex shone his watch on the man just in time to see him reach for a lever and pull it hard. The ground shook and for the second time that day, the ground beneath Alex gave away. Unlike the time he fell earlier, he could tell that the ground hadn't completely disappeared. It had just tilted slightly towards an opening where the brisk wall used to be.

If he had been prepared for it he probably wouldn't have lost his balance and fallen backwards. Somehow, he thought that this was what the man intended becausethe opening closed soon after he began rolling down the side of a hill uncontrollably.

When he stopped at the bottom of the hill, he shone his watch up at the mountainside from where he was lying. His heart skipped a beat and he cursed under his breath, "Where'd the exit go?"

Unfortunately, he couldn't contemplate its disappearance too long. A bright beam of light arced in front of his face and he covered his face with his arms in order to protect his sensitive eyes. He squinted a little at the three people surrounding him.

"NCIS! Put your hands behind your head," a man yelled. "You're under arrest for trespassing upon a federal investigation."

Alex dropped his head on the ground and did as he was told. He had the most rotten luck in the world. Why couldn't he ever catch a break? He sighed as he felt a person place a knee in the small of his back and pull his arms down behind his back. A small click sounded as his hands were cuffed together tightly.

The female NCIS agent behind him pulled him to his feet and began to outline his Miranda Rights. He tuned them out as he was pushed towards a large van parked a short distance away.

In that time, however, he was shocked to see four or five bodies littering the ground near where he had landed. Further in the distance, he saw that they had cordoned off the area and had guards posted around all the entranceways. He shut his eyes as soon as he realised how bad this looked for him.

* * *

**(1) Based on my real-life experience. That's how I really learnt about the fireman's lift. :)**


	3. Gardiner?

Besides being tossed around quite violently in the back of the NCIS van due to an agent's very reckless driving, Alex's journey from the crime scene to the interrogation room was pretty uneventful. Actually, scratch that. He didn't appreciate the fact that they confiscated his clothes just because he rolled over a few splotches of blood.

The NCIS tracksuit that they lent him was incredibly comfortable though. It made the wait in the interrogation room a little more bearable. At least they let him keep the iPod he had stuffed in his pocket. Unlike the phone that he had lost somewhere in the underground tunnel, this had managed to escape any fall-related damages.

Alex looked up as soon as his ears registered the click of the door opening. A man with a cocky swagger entered the interrogation room and sat down in a seat across from him. Then, Mr. Swagger tapped on the table as he looked him over carefully. While he was doing this, a silver-haired man, that he could have only assumed was the man's boss, walked in.

Boss-man stood next to the table and dropped a heavy folder on the table. "What were you doing at our crime scene, kid?"

The teenaged spy winced at the question. He had spent the last hour sitting here thinking up an answer to that question but to no avail. Somehow, it was a lot harder to come up with an excuse when he was a little fuzzy on the details himself.

"I don't know," he said honestly.

At the last moment, Alex had decided to adopt a nasal drawl. Preserving his identity from these Special Agents seemed like a good idea. He'd be damned if this government agency were to find out about his previous status and use his involvement as blackmail – again. The quicker he was out of there, the better.

"Let me ask an easier question, then," Boss-man said lowly. "What's your name?"

"Gardiner. Alex Gardiner," Alex replied.

He'd decided in the van-ride over that he was going to use the cover identity that the CIA gave him when he went to Skeleton Key with Belinda Troy and Tom Turner. He hoped that NCIS wouldn't see through the fake documentation the CIA provided. Hopefully, the documents and the fake sources still existed.

Boss-man turned to the mirror and jerked his head to left. Alex could safely assume that one of the people watching had gone to verify his identity. The worst that could happen was that they would find out he was lying to them.

The man he dubbed Mr. Swagger stopped tapping and clicked his fingers, pointing at Alex excitedly. "I finally got it. How I know you!"

Alex frowned at his statement. He examined the man again in more detail, hoping to God that the man was mistaken. Scanning his memory of the last two times he had been in the US proved fruitless. He couldn't remember seeing this man either of those times.

Mr. Swagger leaned across the table and smirked, "Does E.T. want to phone home?"

The fifteen-year-old recoiled at the man's question. Suddenly, he knew where the man had seen him. After his re-entry from space, he was picked up by the _USS Kitty Hawk_, an American Naval ship before being handed over to ASIS. Mr. Swagger must have been one of the men there that day.

"Has Kangaroo Jack stolen your old job?" Alex responded.

They stared each other down for a little while. Alex was pretty sure that this guy knew next to nothing about him despite knowing about the re-entry. However, this did put a spanner in the works.

Boss-man turned to Mr. Swagger and gave him a disgruntled look, "Is there something I should know, Dinozzo?"

"Sorry, Boss," the man gulped. "It's classified."

Mr. Swagger – Dinozzo, Alex noted – stood up as his Boss calmly left the room. Just before Dinozzo also left the room, he shot Alex an apologetic look, "We'll be back soon. Hang tight."

Unfortunately, with this new development Alex really couldn't afford to hang tight. He patted down his pockets for his Smithers-enhanced iPod and popped the earbuds in his ears. Thank goodness for Smither's goodbye gifts.

What was the eavesdropping code again? Alex pressed a few buttons and placed the iPod on the table so it was pointing at the door. He leaned back and shut his eyes, trying to make his actions seem as natural as possible.

"Boss, seriously, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Mr. Swag— Dinozzo's voice came through a little muffled but it was recognisable.

"Try me," the other man bit back.

Alex frowned slightly, this guy better not break protocol. Classified events are a secret for a reason. In this case, he _was_ the secret and he'd rather remain as one. He'd been out of the business for a month now courtesy of Blunt's retirement. Just in case, he picked up the listening device and selected the record option.

"Boss!" Another voice cut into their conversation. Whoever this newest person was, they were breathing heavily from rushing over.

"What is it, McGee?" Boss-man sighed.

"I got a hit on Alex Gardiner," the new man replied. "The passport photo may be a year old but it's definitely the same kid. His parents are a Tom and Belinda Gardiner and they live together in L.A. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get a hold of his parents right now. I'll have to try again later."

Alex hoped that they would deem him a waste of time and release him into Social Services custody. That way, he could escape and reunite with the Pleasures and pretend this whole mess never happened. It's kind of sad that this was what his life consisted of lately.

"How convenient," Dinozzo commented wryly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the guy called McGee asked. "You make it sound like it's a conspiracy to be out of reach."

Dinozzo chuckled, "Ohoho, have I got a story for you. You see, when I was Agent Afloat, the _USS Kitty Hawk _were tasked to retrieve a space pod that landed off the coast of Australia. You'd never guess who was inside."

Alex cursed under his breath and opened his eyes. The classified BS was for his benefit only. It sounded like these Agents had no qualms about telling each other government secrets. For investigative purposes this was smart. They'd get the answers quicker and they would have plausible deniability.

"By your dancing eyebrows, I'm assuming the kid in there," McGee answered.

Dinozzo whooped, "And McGeek scores!"

"McGee, I want you to look into the retrieval," Boss-man interrupted his colleague's celebrations. "My gut is telling me that there's more to this kid than he appears."

"Y-you believe Tony?" McGee stammered.

Their boss sighed loudly, "I wouldn't have believed him but, when you were gone, Dinozzo cryptically asked him about it. The kid's reaction coupled with a flippant comment about kangaroos confirms Dinozzo's story."

"Are we going to interrogate the kid again, Boss?" Dinozzo asked him.

"Nah," the man replied. "Let him stew for a while. Ziver can watch over him. She's more than capable."

* * *

**Note: Thanks to J'aime lire for asking about the MI6 vs M16 thing. I've read all the Alex Rider novels and the only one that didn't use M16 was Scorpia Rising and I'm pretty sure that's because I had the American version for that. Since I'm a massive Alex Rider fan, I'd prefer to go with the version that the author uses. That's why you'll see M16 instead of MI6. :)**


End file.
